New Things

Kitchen pictures are up on flickr. I finally got around to it. The set has the pics from the original real estate listing, then ones we took after we had gutted the place, then what it looks like now. I wish I had a wide angle lens, so that I could get more in and have it not look so cramped, but what can you do? Don't ever hire me to be your real estate photographer...

Very happy with the outcome. It feels way too nice to be my kitchen. I'm so glad that we pulled the fridge and stove back into the room and put that new bathroom back there. Love it. Couldn't have done it without the help of Jenna's parents, very thankful for that. I've got pictures of Ron and I doing some of the tiling that I'll post later (Jenna was tiling too, but taking the pictures, so she's not in them).
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Jenna bought me a WD TV unit for my birthday and, if you ask me, it's one of the best things ever. Since we bought our new tv on boxing day, we'd been watching a lot of downloaded videos by hooking my computer up to the tv. It was nice to watch things on the tv, but it was really annoying me that I couldn't use my computer while watching things. With the WD TV, we download stuff, put it on my USB drive, plug it into the tiny little WD TV box, and blam, it's on the tv. We've watched so much stuff! Lots of tv, a few movies. Good times. Highly recommended if you enjoy watching downloaded videos.
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For Christmas, Jenna's mom bought Jenna Bananagrams, and I highly recommend it as well, if you like word games at all. It's like Scrabble, but there's no board, and you play off your own words trying to use up all your letters before your opponent(s). Love it.
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Also new, I finally have my full G driver's license. Got it Friday.

"The First Diet Cola For Men"

I may have gotten a little of the ol' scalp sweats with my lunch today. It's not the hottest thing in the world, but Stagg's Dynamite Chili definitely has some bite. I do believe I'll be buying another can.
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I guess this commercial came out over a year ago, but I just saw it for the first time yesterday. I feel like I should hate it, but in the end, it's totally true for me. I am a pretty big Pepsi Max advocate. All the benefits of Diet Pepsi, but it doesn't taste (entirely) like aspartame, and it has extra caffeine? Yes, please! I'll drink diet if there's nothing else, but if you ask me, aspartame is not an 'artificial sweetener,' it's a 'make things taste like aspartame-r,' and that is not a flavour I really like. You get a bit of it in Pepsi Max, but not a lot.

"Men can take anything, except the taste of diet cola."
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This ad gives off a vaguely Addams Family vibe to me, in that it looks playful, but it also kind of makes me afraid to find out what's inside it. In the end though, I find it ridiculously cute.
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I just upped some new posters to my Gigposters page, if you want to check them out. I feel like I'm missing some, but I can't remember what. I'll have to check later.
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Kitchen photos should be going up on Flickr later this week if I have time, if you're interested. I'm excited to finally share!
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Patchy post at best. Feels like that kind of week. I'm already itching for it to be over...

Birthday Tacos.

The Tuesday closest to your birthday is, by default, your birthday tacos. I've missed a number of taco nights recently, but I certainly won't be missing tonight's!
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By the way, yes, that is a taco on our Christmas tree. I am so happy with our first Christmas tree here, and we both have been getting sad that its going to have to go. The shape is perfect (for us), and there are so many little things that I love on it! I'm uploading pictures right now to my flickr account, so check it out later to see more.
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I haven't been posting much, because we've either been busy working, or busy relaxing. We just finished Dexter season 4, which was amazing. So stressful at times! So good! We're almost finished the kitchen. We put up the backsplash over last week, and grouted this weekend. I"ve always wanted to try grouting, and definitely enjoyed it.

I've been asked why I haven't put more pictures of the house up here. I should be doing that soon. I haven't to this point because I don't want to ruin the final impact of the finished project. I want that punchy before and after, you know? So give it a week or two.
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I've also been neglecting my google reader, so there's not much to share, but here's a few things:

Mini chair jewelery. Awesome. Reminds me of the mini replicas of famous chairs you can buy (and that my friend Jen G. has some of, making me jealous of her).

Record covers re-done with super heroes. Have I ever mentioned that I owned a sleeveless Purple Rain sweatshirt when I was a kid? Sleeveless. Sweatshirt. There's a picture I'll have to find...

Vans Spring Classics. All in light grey. Nice. Damn I'd love those Sk8-Hi's.

This kid is so stylish! Seriously!

These hand-stitched versions of classic book covers are pretty awesome.
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I feel like I'm behind on posting. We've been busy with kitchen things and work things though. I keep being tempted to share an 'in progress' kitchen shot with you, but I'm trying real hard to wait for the end. We finally have a floor, and now we just have to pick a back splash and a paint colour. Spent a few hours last night cleaning dust off the cupboards, and anything that was in an uncovered box in the dining room. Still more work to go!
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One of the things I always enjoy about Overcompensating is the way God acts when he shows up: today's comic was a prime example.

Jeffrey's blog posts are usually interesting/entertaining/good too. For example, with this comic he says some things about religion that I definitely agree with. Such as: "I've had the opinion that 'worship whatever you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody'" and "It's a good thing there isn't a commandment in the Decalogue that simply says 'Don't Be an Asshole,' because a lot of American Christians would be in trouble right about now."

My apologies for talking religious on you, but I always like it when someone sums things up nicely. On to lighter things...
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I found this picture exciting. Not that I have ever been able to justify buying House merchandise, but I do like a lot of it, and of course I love wooden crates, so this is a good combination for me...
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I forgot how awesome it is to search 'peanut' in vintage on etsy. It yields both Mr. Peanut, and Peanuts the comic strip results. Two things I definitely enjoy.
Here are some nice items I found this time:
Peanuts musical ferris wheel bank. This thing is awesome. Too bad it's rare and wicked expensive!
Linus rag doll. This is pretty much one of the cutest things I have seen. So cute.
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When I first saw images of this Kracken Rum bottle, I thought 'hey, if I drank rum, that's definitely the rum I would buy!' Now that I've seen this media kit, I totally want that too. Nice packaging, and what looks like clever marketing. I've mentioned before that I get sick of how often packaging blogs cover alcohol labels, but then sometimes, you get a gem like this one. Nice stuff.

Since I linked to videos of one of my other heroes the other day, I thought I'd pass along this picture and this video of Jim Henson that We Love You So linked to. I love Jim Henson. I think he was a great person who did great things. Pictures like the one above always make me both happy and sad. Such a tender looking moment between a man and his puppet. Such a talented, special individual. I wonder what he would have gotten up to if he hadn't died when he did?
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To jump gears completely, how awesome does this antique lighting store look? I'd love to shop there! Except I bet I wouldn't be able to afford anything.
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Here's another video for you; a featurette on Studio on Fire.
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I keep going back to look at these business cards. Clever work there for sure.
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I've often thought about this classic hat style, and wondered why someone wasn't putting a version of it out. I guess now New Era is, but of course, like many awesome things, you can only get it in Japan. Not that I think I'd be able to pull it off, but still, nice to know it's out there.
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At home for kitchen related reasons. Cleaning out the ol' google reader, some work, and some house work. It's Halloween tomorrow, lots of prep to do. Why do I always leave costume details to the last minute?

It's taco day! It's a good thing I'm not religious because apparently some religions ONLY let you eat tacos on Tuesday. My personal beliefs are that while you can eat tacos any day, you really should eat tacos on Tuesday. (Thank you Jeffrey Rowland for another great taco related laugh)
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I've always liked this logo. Sad to see it go. While Armin laments it's loss, identifying that "it’s crystal clear that the world in which Rand created identities is not the same world they exist in now and most are reaching their expiry date," what makes me the most sad is that that world is gone. Also, with this one, I don't think the updated logo is really much of an update. I mean, it ties in with the University now, but it's not like the simple "Yale" is really all that much, considering the current world of logos, you know?
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Toronto: The New World Capitol For Homos, Draft Dodgers and Degenerates. Nice.
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How much do you want to bet that this was the UK cover? (A continued complaint from here)
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Disc golf Thursday was great. It's tiring going up and down those hills though! Missed out going this weekend though due to sickness...

Kitchen is moving along. Can't wait for it to be done!!

One stress in our life is done, now we just need to get the kitchen worked out. Which, actually, I think might happen. Even if the manufacturer still has to make the floor we want...

I've been hoping to come back with something unique and exciting, but instead it's more purging of my reader. Which does yield some exciting stuff, but somehow feels less than exciting, you know? Hopefully it's just me.
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Department of Eagles video designed and co-directed by Marcel Dzama. I started listening to Department of Eagles this summer, and definitely enjoy it. This track is a stand out for sure. And I've loved what I've seen by Dzama in the past.

Truth be told, I only watched about a minute of this and then had to share it. I suck at watching videos that other people post. I will leave this one unread and then take forever to go back and fully watch it. The funny part of that is, I have a bunch of videos I've seen that I'll be sharing with you soon, and expecting you to not do what I always do, and actually watch them.
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Cutest headphone jack splitter ever? I think so.
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Periodic Table of Typefaces? I'll take one! (okay, really, I'll think about taking one... do I really want to pay $22+ for it, and do I have anywhere to put a largish poster? I think I might, and I think I do. So maybe I will take one... We'll see.)

Lino-cut printing with a steamroller? Yes! (Seriously, watch the video. It's pretty impressive!)

(These were both from FPO [For Print Only] which is a pretty awesome blog about, not surprisingly, printed materials. I love it because they break down the cost, materials, etc. Quite interesting.)
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Cool bird prints. These are probably making the rounds pretty good. I saw them on Grain Edit and LOVE them. There's a whole lot of Charley Harper influence in there it looks like. Some highlights for me: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. A few of them together would make a nice little collection of prints somewhere. Where's the red-winged black bird though? Give me one of those, and I'm in.
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The classic CBC logo gets ripped off! Not once, but twice!
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Beautiful abstract tattoos. I can't believe how much they look like actual paint. Interesting idea, bridging the "real art" vs. body art gap. I'm also the birds in the chest piece in the "modern" section of the artist's website. (Sorry, I'd link direct, but it's flash...) Really nice stuff.
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So, I have to admit, I never was a massive fan of Where the Wild Things are. That's not to say that I didn't like it, just that I wasn't huge into it. I never owned it. I bet if I had I would have loved it, but I never did. I did love the Little Monster books, and other weird stuff by Mercer Meyer.

So anyway, I had to admit that, in order to say that I am really excited about the upcoming movie version of Where The Wild Things Are. Everything about it looks awesome, exciting, and magical. I've been reading the blog connected to the film, and that's become a part my excitement too. It really highlights the tastes and ideas of the filmmakers and what has influenced them and their movie.

As an example, here's what they think of people tagging their billboard: "A better shot of our new favourite billboard" & "Billboard". I love the text in the second one (which was actually the first one), posted by Spike: "Finally! I’ve been waiting to see one customized. We should have a contest for the best altered billboard…" They really appreciate that that is someone else's art and work interacting with their own.

Anyway, great blog, great seeming filmmakers, hopefully great movie.
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I guess that's it for now. Still 36 unread items in my reader, but better...

I'm loving this weather lately. Though it's making me wish we were back in New England, since we were there this time last year, and it was super grey and rainy the whole time (as you can see it was when we visited the top of Mt. Washington in the picture above). I miss it for sure.

The bad part about the weather? We were hoping to get in a game of disc golf today...